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President Vladimir V Putin of Russia on Thursday delivered an acidic message of defiance and anger at the West at an annual news conference in Moscow, showing no sign of softening his position on Ukraine despite the financial turmoil that has gripped the country.
Putin blamed "external factors," including Western sanctions and falling oil prices, for the collapse of the Russian currency, the rouble. But he played down the severity of the economic crisis, saying that it would last a maximum of two years before a return of growth.
"I believe that we are right," Putin said of the conflict in Ukraine, likening the West's expansion of Nato toward Russia to a new Berlin Wall. "And I believe that our Western partners are not right."
At the conference, which was attended by about 1,200 journalists, Putin said that initial moves to stabilise the rouble might have been too slow, but he promised quick action to avoid further economic damage. He also promised to maintain social welfare programmes at their current level.
"I believe that the central bank and the government are taking adequate measures," Putin said.
Putin recognised the efforts of President Petro O Poroshenko of Ukraine in ending the conflict in the southeast of that country, but he suggested that others in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, may be trying to prolong the conflict.
"Undoubtedly, the president of Ukraine certainly wants a settlement, and I have no doubt that he is striving for this," Putin said. "But he's not alone there," he added, referring to more hawkish officials.
"We hear a lot of militant statements; I believe President Poroshenko is seeking a settlement, but there is a need for practical action," Putin added. "There is a need to observe the Minsk agreements" calling for a cease-fire and a withdrawal of forces.
Russia has toned down its talk on the Ukraine crisis in the past month, and some of its most incendiary language, like "junta" and "Novorossiya," a blanket term used for the separatist territories, is no longer used on state-run television news. Putin also notably omitted those terms, which he had used in other public appearances, on Thursday.
Foreign Minister Sergey V Lavrov said in an interview on the news channel France 24 on Tuesday that Russia was not suggesting federalisation "for the separatist territories" and "not suggesting autonomy".
Putin has managed to maintain high popularity ratings in his 15 years leading Russia, in large part by assuring security and prosperity, but the recent nose dive of the national currency is threatening that achievement. The rouble, which has lost more than 46 per cent of its value against the dollar this year, was broadly stable on Thursday, trading at 61.14 to the dollar in the afternoon.
The currency's plunge came in large part as a result of a precipitous drop in oil prices. Energy resources constitute 60 per cent of the country's exports. Russia's budget is built around an oil price of roughly $100 a barrel, whereas oil is now selling at about $61 a barrel. But Western sanctions imposed after Russia annexed Crimea and destabilised Ukraine have compounded the problem.
Russian companies owe about $650 billion to Western banks, while the country's foreign exchange reserves are pegged at about $400 billion. The government tried to calm the exchange markets by announcing that it had sufficient money to cover the debts, but with all new financing from the West cut off by sanctions, the source of that money remained unclear.
Russia's state-controlled television has been promoting the news conference all week with a fast-paced advertisement that shows clips of some of the year's major events, including the Olympic Games in Sochi, the annexation of Crimea, charts of financial performance, the situation in the Middle East and floods in Russia's far east. It ends with a screen of print giving the name and date of the news conference.
©2014 The New York Times News Service
